


Dark Warrior

by Sued13



Series: We Have Some Issues [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Character Death, F/M, Suicidal Thoughts, continual pain, cybernetic enhancements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:29:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27691415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sued13/pseuds/Sued13
Summary: Rex finds another brother.
Relationships: CT-7567 | Rex/Original Female Character(s)
Series: We Have Some Issues [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2015804
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	Dark Warrior

**Author's Note:**

> I have had this hanging around for a year or so as it just didn’t seem to fit in with the whole story arc of Choices but The Mandalorian has prompted me to finish it.

Wolffe helped Ana up; she and thirteen others had survived the attack, and she was one of the lesser injured but given her pregnancy needed to see a medic. Wolffe had found one. The black armoured stormtrooper had disappeared from the room.

"Rex?"

"He's seeing to something. Now let the medic do his work."

Wolffe left her to the medic; she frantically looked around for Rex, only seeing him for seconds when they both checked each was okay. They were both uninjured but the medic was doing his job, checking her over and within minutes she was being escorted off the ship. Her worry about Rex was allayed somewhat, as Wolffe was with him.

.

Wolffe stood at the door, after Ana had been escorted out and everyone else had left; Rex had said that he wanted to talk to the Black armoured Stormtrooper alone, so nobody was going to get in. Rebel Command had asked them to apprehend one and intel showed that this ship held at least one; now they had found it. Rex was.....talking to it; there were rumours that they was not human, but droids and not like the other Stormtroopers. No one was certain of anything regarding them, except that they were lethal, unstoppable. This one had been stopped. The Empire was notoriously pro-human except where slaves were involved and then any species was fair game. Wolffe growled softly to himself; he had finally shook off most of his conditioning from serving the Republic and the short time he served the Empire. Being part of the Rebellion was helping.

The clones were the best to do this, after all, they were the ones that had all the experience of fighting droids and had been successful in destroying them on many occasions. Wolffe blocked the door for his brother; no one was going to get in there until Rex got to the bottom of this.

.

Rex stood regarding the stormtrooper lying on the floor next to him; Ana had said he warned her when the door was going to blow. He wanted to see the enemy that would do that, the man behind the mask.

If he was a man; there had been rumours about these troopers. Dark Troopers, Shadow Troopers, Death Troopers they were known by different names but they all had the same result; they were cold blooded, ruthless killers. The Rebellion had seen the evidence of that on numerous occasions.

“So…..what’s your designation number ……Captain?” Rex saw the command marks on his armour.

The body on the floor turned its head slowly, “You don’t need to know… Captain.” Then returned to its previous position.

Rex sighed, “So it’s going to be like that is it?” The rasping of the man’s breathing apparatus irritated Rex; he wanted to pull the helmet off and clean the filters but that would be demeaning and he didn’t want to do that to him. He was a fellow soldier, and there was something, just a hint that was prodding at him to find out more, to not accept just what he could see. That was his reason, he told himself, as he stood watching him. The medic had stopped the bleeding but that was all the Stormtrooper himself had allowed them to do. It actually helped Rex, as he needed to be able interrogate the man on the floor next to him; he hated this part of the job but it needed to be done. He settled himself in; the man had been disarmed, but he could still be dangerous.

“How’s the wound?”

The helmet didn’t move.

“Why this transport?”

The helmet didn’t move.

“What’s so special on here?”

The helmet didn’t move. Rex let it rest there, leaning back against the wall, letting the silence do the work. It stretched out; the only sounds the noises of the rebel salvage crew recycling what they could and the breathing of the trooper next to him. He tried another angle.

“Why did you warn the woman?”

Rex wanted to smile as the helmet, moved fractionally; anyone else would have missed it but having been brought up wearing a helmet and fought with hundreds of men wearing similar helmets, the slightest movement signified something. A response, deliberate or otherwise.

“She’s pregnant.”

“She is. But she’s still a rebel.”

The helmet didn’t move.

Rex wanted to remove the helmet, there was something about this Death Trooper, a killing machine, that was different. Rex would love to see the face beneath the mask. It shouldn’t make any difference to him but it did. The man didn’t have long left, the medics said the injuries were fatal and there was nothing more they could do. They had stopped the bleeding but that was just prolonging the agony; there were other underlying health problems, they said, and the numerous cybernetic enhancements complicated things.

Rex squeezed the bridge of his nose, some unbidden images had come into his mind of fallen brothers on numerous battlefields.

“Lost many brothers have you.”

The question made Rex head jerk up.

“What do you know about brothers?”

The helmet didn’t move again and was silent.

“Stormtroopers are close knit.”

“Yeah but they can’t aim and the armour’s …..crap.”

The helmet dipped several times; if it was he, Wolffe or Gregor, the others would have known they were laughing in private. Had he made a breakthrough?

A hacking cough came next.

“The woman….I saw you talking to her; she means something to you?”

Rex didn’t move; he was supposed to be doing the interrogating.

”Is the baby yours?”

Rex nodded; it didn’t matter now, the man wasn’t going to survive.

“You’re a lucky man, Captain.”

There was something about the way he said Captain, so reminiscent of his past life.

“Lucky to have lived so long. Lucky to have found a normal life. Not something that was expected.”

Rex was desparate to get that helmet off now; the way this trooper was talking showed he knew who Rex was, or more importantly, what he was.

“Yes, that we can agree on. I am a lucky man.”

Rex slid down the wall to sit next to the trooper. “We haven’t known each other long, in the scheme of things but she means a great deal to me and this is our first child.”

“Do you mean you love her?”

“I do.”

“Lucky, lucky man.” The troopers breath rasped for a few seconds before he continued. “I had a brother who I loved, but he died. I wasn’t there to help him.”

Before Rex realised it, the words were out of his mouth, “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you Captain.”

Rex pulled himself back; he was supposed to be interrogating him not having a chat.

“I need to get intel from you.”

“I know Captain.”

Again that niggling feeling that Rex got from this man; the voice inflection seemed so familiar.

_But it couldn’t be._

_The talk of brothers._

_But it couldn’t be._

_Could it?_

He heard the familiar hiss of a seal breaking and an equally familiar voice say, “Could you, Sir?”

Its hand was trying and failing to remove the helmet.

Rex carefully pulled the Imperial version of the helmet, the one he used to wear, off the man and laid it to one side. The face looked young but the skin was .....odd, lacking blood; Rex knew it exactly what it should look like. It was his face.

He’d found another Clone; after all this time.

“It’s been a while…sir.”

Rex realised now that the breathing wasn’t the helmet, it was the man. He scanned his face, thinner than expected but he’d been fighting all his life. The hair buzzed to his scalp, with small nodules erupting from it plus a cybernetic implant of some kind around his ear. Rex focused on the faint old scar lines that covered a portion of his face; a V shaped scar covering his left eye.

_A tattoo removal?_

More memories flooded to the fore. Ones he would rather forget.

“Dogma?”

“Once, Captain…” his speech cut off by a hacking cough, and a small dribble of blood snaked out of the corner of his mouth. “Now IC9512.”

“Let me get you a medic.”

The other man’s hand landed heavily on his forearm. “It’s too late for that; we both know it.”

“They could make you more comfortable.” _Well, Ana would have._

“I don’t deserve to be….comfortable, after what I’ve done Rex……... What they did to me……I should have walked away,” his laugh cracked. “done this years ago.”

Rex clasped his hand over his younger brothers’; at one time they would never have fought each other. At one time, he had reminded Rex of his younger self. Another unwelcome memory.

Rex had to know; he’d made enquiries about the young trooper who had done what he had been unable to. Each enquiry hit a brick wall. He could find him nowhere, there was not even a court-martial, given that he killed a commanding officer, and Jedi; even though Krell had been a traitor and it was admitted as much at the subsequent Jedi Council Enquiry.

“I’m sorry!”

“All my fault Sir.”

“It’s Rex.”

He nodded, “Rex.”

“What happened…after?”

“Thought I’d be reconditioned but no, they had other plans for me. Couldn’t really refuse. It was that or reconditioning.” He rasped, a throaty laugh. Just the mention of reconditioning still sent a shiver up Rex’s spine.

“I tried, Dogma, I tried, but there was no trace of you. It was like you didn’t exist.”

“No problem.”…….”I heard about Tup.”

Another wave hit Rex.

“Fives was with him. He tried to help.”

“He wasn’t alone?”

“No, he had a brother with him, right at the end.”

“Good.” He let out a rattling sigh.”I heard about Fives too.” His chest rattled now.

“I’ll get a medic.”

“No!.... Rex….just leave it.” He sighed, “It’s my time.”

“No. Not again.”

“Rex…” his voice was gentler now; “They did things to me. I’m more machine than man now but they’re failing, the additions.” He pulled some pieces of armour away to reveal metal implants, that reminded Rex so much of Echo that it was painful. But also the skin was puckered and infected. “There’s nothing more they can do except …..experiment on me.” He finished on another hacking cough, and more watery blood spilled from his mouth. “And I’m done with that.”

“Perhaps some more painkillers though?”

“You need to know. I was one of the first…..had too many enhancements, too many operations to remember.” He was struggling to breathe between each sentence. “Put in stasis after each mission until now.”

“I’ll get you some more painkillers.”

“Rex, they’re building more, more of us with enhanced abilities. Different abilities.” His face contorted in pain. Rex grasped his hand and rose; he nodded to him as he left the room.

Wolffe was still on guard.

“He needs more painkillers.” Indicated Rex, then they both spun around, as they heard the muffled sound of a blaster. Rex’s hand went to his holster, as he realised it was empty and they rushed into the room.

It was too late.

His brother had made his choice.

Rex felt Wolffe’s hand on his shoulder.

His brother was at peace now.

.

The light from fresher woke Ana from her fitful sleep; Rex was finally back.

“You okay?”

She heard the grunt in reply – he wasn’t. She let him finish; she knew better than to push him now. He came silently to bed, laying next to her, she turned. He captured her face, and kissed her deeply, longingly, lovingly like he didn’t want to let her go, ever. When eventually he did, she shuffled up the bunk, sitting upright, pushing the pillows behind her.

“What happened?”

He shook his head, some things he just couldn’t put into words, and rested it on her chest, hand on her stomach, feeling his child moving, sensing his touch. Such a different start in life compared to his. All he wanted to do now, was lose himself in Ana and his child.

**Author's Note:**

> Not knowing whatever happened to Dogma, I decided he was made into a prototype Dark Trooper.


End file.
